Call me Al’s Techdirt Comments

I think something that is important to remember about many blogs are the comments. Mike's piece at the top lays out his opinion and really works as a starting point. The commentators can then write their own views and examine the original post and its information. Its a dialogue and when its working it is marvellous.

This is a far cry from the traditional newspaper. They print a piece for their audience to read, they feel that they are the dispensers of news and that we are only the receivers. This lack of a two way exchange means that analysis of what they are saying is harder and the ability to publicise where they have gone wrong is nearly impossible.

I suppose what I'm saying is that a bad blogger should be torn apart by their readers and should not survive. A good blogger will encounter disagreements but have arguments a plenty but they should survive and continue posting.

Its becoming incredibly frustrating watching companies and individuals trying to get something for nothing. They are all after the quick buck now at the likely expense of more bucks later. This short termism seems to be endemic in business and government everywhere.

"Why are you assuming one can't count multiple people using the same PCs? Cybercafes are likely regulated in China, with every user required to provide some sort of personal detail. You can't wipe your ass in China without the govt knowing about it. Do you think they'd let anyone access the Net without them knowing about it?

If there are 100,000 cyber cafes in China that see 3000 unique visitors a year, you have straightaway got 300 million unique Internet users. Ka-ching!"

I travelled around a lot of China a couple of years ago and spent a lot of time in internet cafes. I have to say that what they required from me varies enormously. Some (often the largest ones) just didn't care as long as I had the money. Many of the middling sized ones though even wanted to see my passport although did not take a copy. To assume that the government knows these kinds of numbers is pretty daft.

Some of these cafes were huge and regularly full to capacity (mostly with Counterstrike and WoW), however these were all young people in the cities. A huge amount of the population of China is rural and I would be very surprised if they have any kind of net access at all.

I think it is something they are going to have to try out, but it will be difficult. It is often thought that by lowering the price of something you increase the sales but it must be a nightmare trying to find the tipping point where the lower price leads to higher profits.

Personally speaking I tend to stream music from an artist I'm new to and if I like it (after a few weeks listening) I buy it. If the price was 50% or even 75% what it is currently then the relative value of album would improve and make it more likely I'll buy it.